Success story: Gaucho

With 20 locations across the UK (primarily in London) and a growing portfolio that includes brands like M, The Crane Tap, Meat & Bun and Gaucho, Rare Restaurants is a major player in the restaurant industry.  

In 2022, Gaucho sought to revamp their digital marketing strategy, making it more data-driven and technologically advanced. They aimed to create personalised and intelligent marketing automation to better target different audience segments based on customer behaviours and lifecycle stages, ultimately driving engagement and repeat business.  

Focus on automation was the main drive of their new digital strategy but the ideal solution would also streamline operations and free up valuable time for strategic planning. 

Patrick Powell, Gaucho's Digital Marketing Manager, explains: "We wanted to be more progressive in how we use our tech stack and take away the manual work as much as possible from the team."

Access Acteol CRM, a software specifically designed for hospitality, helped Gaucho gather and analyse customer data from multiple sources and allowed them to gain a comprehensive view of their customers to personalise their service and marketing efforts.  

Upon implementing Acteol, Gaucho prioritised a data-driven approach to enhancing customer experiences and developed a 3-step data strategy with the aim to: 

• Uncover data insights - the goal was to identify key data sources across the business and develop strategies to maximise the collection of valuable customer information. 
• Unlock customer understanding - to implement strategic data segmentation and tailor insights based on customer behaviours and preferences. 
• Align strategy with goals - Gaucho took a step back to review their business objectives, ensuring that customer data analysis directly supports those goals. 

We wanted to make sure our customers only received communications that were relevant to their interests.

To achieve this, Gaucho sought to create personalised, intelligent automation that engages with different segments of their database. They designed a new digital strategy to automate 90% of their CRM campaigns, streamlining processes and freeing up valuable time with a software solution that "works seamlessly in the background and drives results." 

Since implementing Access CRM, Gaucho has experienced significant growth and marketing gains: 

• Database expansion - their database nearly doubled from 370,000 to 700,000. 
• Increased campaign volume - Gaucho increased the number of campaigns sent annually by 97% compared to 2022. 
• Improved targeting - their ad-hoc campaigns (created in the Voucher Module of Acteol CRM) achieved a 72% Quality Score, leading to increased visits and direct spend. 
• Boosted ROI - visits driven by automation have increased by 125% compared to 2022. 
• Enhanced loyalty - they also implemented a loyalty scheme, finding that these enrolled customers visit 2.5 times more frequently than non-members. 

The strategic use of multiple data sources and a picture-clear view of each of their customers are what made Gaucho successful in their marketing efforts. Their booking platform and partnership with DesignMyNight provide rich customer insights, allowing for tailored messaging that resonates well with their audience. Additionally, they've successfully leveraged on-site WiFi. The data collected through Wireless Social allowed them to capture 3000-5000 new email sign-ups each month. 

Acteol CRM helps us build a more accurate picture of our customers and works seamlessly in the background while driving visible results.

Since implementing Access CRM, Gaucho has seen impressive results from their data-driven approach. Here are a few key learnings to note: 

• The power of automation - Automating CRM campaigns can significantly increase marketing efficiency, freeing up valuable time for strategic planning and leading to substantial growth in campaigns sent, targeted results, and ROI. 
• Data-driven personalisation - Segmenting data based on customer behaviours and preferences allows for highly personalised messaging that translates into more relevant communications, better engagement, increased visits and direct spend.  
• Multi-channel data collection - Leveraging diverse data sources (booking platforms, partnerships like DesignMyNight, website sign-ups, and on-site WiFi) allows for a more comprehensive understanding of customers.  
• Incentivised sign-ups work - Offering incentives like a complimentary cocktail encourages sign-ups, demonstrating that strategic incentives can bolster database growth. 
• Focus on loyalty pays off - Gaucho's loyalty program proves that offering frequent diners additional value encourages repeat visits.

Acteol CRM is the best in class in terms of hospitality CRM platforms.